Re: electronic components

[palmer@sfu.ca (Leigh Palmer)]

> BTW: When I was a young student (~1960), the time to discharge was
> considered to be about 7 time constants.  I'm not sure why the change!?

It is entirely conventional. e^-5 < 0.01; e^-7 < 0.001. The convention
for risetime of pulses is looser yet, a pulse being deemed to have risen
when it reaches 90% of its asymptotic value. On that basis you could say
a capacitor is discharged (to 0.1 of its initial charge) in about 2.3
time constants.

Leigh